During the last fifteen years, David Rendall has spoken to audiences on every inhabited continent. His clients include the US Air Force and the Australian Government, as well as companies in the Fortune 500 including, Microsoft, AT&T, State Farm Insurance and Ralph Lauren.

In between presentations, he competes in ultramarathons and Ironman triathlons.

Prior to becoming a speaker, he was a management professor and stand-up comedian. He also managed nonprofit enterprises that provided employment for people with disabilities. He has more than twenty years of experience leading people and organizations.

David has a doctor of management degree in organizational leadership, as well as a graduate degree in psychology. He is the author of three books:

The Four Factors of Effective Leadership

The Freak Factor

The Freak Factor for Kids

"Dave Rendall has a radical prescription for chronic dissatisfaction: Stop working on your weaknesses and start amplifying them instead. The Freak Factor flips the cult of self-improvement on its head with stories of real people who have soared to success by embracing their uniqueness."

− Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

"David Rendall reclaims the term "freak" for what it is - a powerful, game-changing competitive advantage in life and business. This book will change the way you think about being different, and show you how it's the secret to turning around your career."

− Pam Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation

"Everything you've read about weakness is wrong.... until now. This book will help you stop trying to be well-rounded and start excelling at what you always knew you were best at. Raise your freak flag and wave it with pride!"

− Chris Guillebeau, author of The Art of Non-Conformity

"The Freak Factor is an important idea, and David Rendall's is a voice to be reckoned with. We should all look to our lives to see how we can accommodate rather than eliminate the freaks!"

− Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma

KEYNOTES

Is your organization confronting major change? Is your industry experiencing significant challenges? Are you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated? Maybe you just need a good laugh.

Making people laugh is very similar to helping people change. We can learn how to transform ourselves and our companies by understanding what it takes to be funny.

Humor surprises people, pushes boundaries and tells the truth. Great comedy requires the right blend of timing, restraint, humility and emotion. Applying these same principles to change management will help you succeed during turbulent times.

Lessons from the Lives and Violent Deaths of the World’s Most Influential People

Do you want to become a great leader? What does it take to achieve greatness?

When I ask audiences to identify the greatest leaders in the history of the world, a few names always make the list. After asking this question repeatedly over the years, I finally noticed something. The leaders, who were consistently rated as great, shared one thing in common.

They had all been killed. They didn’t die natural deaths. They were either executed or assassinated. This led me to explore the lessons that we can learn from their example. During that journey, I discovered four leadership principles that have the power to transform your leadership and your legacy.

What’s your problem? I’m serious. What do you wish you could change about yourself? What is the complaint that you hear the most from those closest to you, your friends, co-workers, and family members? Are you too loud or too quiet, too hyperactive or too sedentary, too organized or too messy? You get the idea.

So, what should you do? Most people think that they should find and fix their weaknesses. Unfortunately, this just leads to frustration and failure. Your weaknesses are actually the best clue to your strengths. Furthermore, building your strengths, not fixing your weaknesses, is your best strategy for success.

This presentation will encourage you to become more of who you are, not to turn you into someone else. It’s about becoming more different and more unique, not more average and more mediocre. You will learn how to:

Are you frustrated by disengaged and unproductive employees? Are you looking for better strategies for improving employee performance?

Research shows that most people are not committed to their jobs and the way we currently manage employees does even more to harm, instead of help, their performance. We think our employees are broken, treat them like they are broken, and then wonder why they don’t work. Instead of attacking people’s weaknesses, we need to find the strength that is hidden inside their apparently negative characteristics.

It is time to stop trying to create well-rounded and balanced employees. We need people that are unbalanced. We need freaks. This session will explore four essential strategies for improving employee engagement by turning our teams, departments or organizations into freak factories.

BREAKOUTS

It is difficult to get people to change. This is because everyone has a unique change style, which affects the way they think and feel about change. Understanding these differences is essential to transforming individuals, teams, departments and organizations.

In this session we will complete an assessment of each person’s change personality. This will be followed by an explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of each style. Then we’ll look at ways to approach change that fit with an individual’s unique style. It’s easy to see some of these styles as more desirable than others. However, each has value and can be used to improve the organization.

What separates innovative organization from those that struggle to adapt? How can you create a company that continually develops and implements new ideas, products and services?

The answers might surprise you. Traditional approaches to innovation don’t work and might even make things worse. To be successful, businesses need to embrace five unconventional strategies that challenge our current understanding of fear, failure, control and conformity.

Do you wish that you could predict the future? Unfortunately, I can’t give you the winning lottery numbers, but I can share a simple secret for accurately predicting what will happen next.

Globalization, outsourcing, demographic shifts and technological advances are just a few of the seismic changes causing dramatic shifts in the way people live, work and play. These changes are combining and accelerating their impact on the world. This impact is both positive and negative, creating opportunities and threats, hope and fear. It is important for everyone to understand these trends and how they affect the future of their lives, careers and organizations.

Whether you are a manager, parent, teacher, little league coach or nonprofit board member, The Four Factors of Effective Leadership will help you improve your ability to influence others to achieve meaningful goals. This book combines the wisdom of ancient philosophers, successful executives and leadership gurus into a clear roadmap for effective leadership. The four factors focus on common themes that can be found throughout most books on leadership and interpersonal effectiveness.

These factors show that: — Everyone can be a leader — Leadership begins with you — Leadership is a relationship — Leadership produces positive change. Using stories of famous leaders and infamous failures, the author illustrates the importance of the four factors: Influence, Integrity, Inspiration, and Improvement.

These factors are contrasted with the pitfalls of ineffective leadership: Power, Position, Popularity, and Personality. Self-assessments for each factor are included to help you evaluate your leadership and develop a plan for continued improvement.

Do you want to increase your influence? Are you looking for practical ways to improve your leadership? Effective leaders recognize the importance of continuous learning and personal development. They are also dedicated to empowering and training others. Based on the fourth factor of effective leadership, improvement, this seminar offers ten proven methods for leadership development, including strategies for personal growth and developing other leaders.

Individuals and businesses are constantly confronted with rapidly accelerating change. Effective leaders of the future will need to not only adapt to change but also create individual and organizational transformation. Unfortunately, most people and organizations resist change and are not aware of future trends. This session will explore methods for managing resistance to change as well as ways to become a creative person and an innovative leader.

Are you burned out? Do you feel overwhelmed by personal and professional stress? If you want to recharge yourself and reclaim control of your physical, emotional and mental well-being, this seminar can help. We will explore the causes and symptoms of burnout, as well as six proven stress management strategies. You will learn how to:

Are you too busy? Do you feel overwhelmed? Are you constantly being pulled in too many different directions? Is it hard to find time for the things that really matter? Time management is more than just checking items off a to-do list or squeezing a few more minutes out of each day by multi-tasking. In fact, these activities can often be counterproductive. In order to increase effectiveness and restore your peace of mind, it is essential to clarify purpose, develop plans, prioritize activities, and proactively execute those priorities each day. This seminar will show you how to:

Do you always get what you want? Why do some attempts succeed while others fail? What can you do to improve your ability to convince others? Whether you work in sales, fund development or organizational management, powerful persuasion is an essential element of your success. This seminar will explore nine fundamental principles of human behavior and help you harness that knowledge to persuade the people around you. You will learn how to: